Let’s the auditions begin!
Over the next seven days, more than 30 hopefuls will begin auditioning and doing sports radio at WNST-AM 1570 while blogging and creating Baltimore Sports Media Superstar content at WNST.net. The best and brightest will join us and a few celebrities at Hooters in Towson on Monday, July 9th for the first of two live shows in the competition to win $1,000 and an opportunity to do a weekend show this fall at WNST.
Because this is my fourth time doing this competition, I’ve seen (and heard) a lot of bad radio auditions doomed to failure before they begin.
In 2006, I gave all of the contestants a full hour to do radio. I make a lot of mistakes but this was among the biggest in recent memory. It was excruciating for most of the participants. And I’m sure even their friends and family turned the radio off in pain. Many of them simply stopped talking. One, just waved a white handkerchief, and quit in midstream.
And that was when it was just a radio competition. The blogging and social media content part of the emerging job qualifications have thinned the field even more in recent years.
It’s very, very hard to find top-notch talent to put on the radio and into our WNST.net space on the web these days.
It’s harder than you think to be a Baltimore Sports Media Superstar but somewhere out there this week we’re hoping to start another Baltimore sports media career – all with the explosion of new media, mobile and social media to carry the way. Our Twitter hashtag is #WNSTBSMS
Today, I offer some helpful hints for this crop of “wannabes” and hopefuls.
Let’s see how many follow the instructions!
1. Don’t bring a script. It sounds awful. It’s not the way sports radio is done. There’s no way for you to script a radio segment and advance your hopes of doing this for a living.
2. Be comfortable. Dress comfortably. Know your material. And if you’re nervous, you’ll sound nervous.
3. Ask yourself: would I stop what I was doing in the car and listen to this show? And why would I want to listen?
4. The power of breath is amazing. Breathe. Talk. Think. Enunciate. Broadcast. Educate. Inform. Make people think and they’ll stay. To engage is to win. The victory comes when people stay and when they can’t wait to hear the next thing you’re going to say because it has significance and value.
5. Try to have fun. A fun show is one people in their cars want to tune into when they’re driving in traffic.
6. I always hope that people come into the studio having watched last night’s Orioles game, the NBA draft, relevant and topical information regarding current events like the BCS changes, the Sandusky situation, this weekend’s golf and tennis tournaments, etc.
Have some material and be ready to be great!
Here’s the schedule:
Friday, June 29
2 p.m. – Richard Golden
2:30 p.m. – Josh Levine
3 p.m. — Jason Baier
3:30 p.m. – James Finn
4 p.m. – Steve Katz
4:30 p.m. – Barry Rankin
5 p.m. – Andrew Tomlinson
Monday, July 2
2:30 p.m. – Jesse Jones
3 p.m. – Eric Green
3:30 p.m. – Jeffrey Gilley
4 p.m. – Adam McCallister
4:30 p.m. – Melissa Rubin
Tuesday, July 3
2 p.m. – Stephen Daniels
2:30 p.m. – Brett Dickinson
3 p.m. – Gil Kuta Jr.
3:30 p.m. – Chris Cichon
4 p.m. – Ryan Hiken
4:30 p.m. – Hope Birchfield
5 p.m. – Evan Vollerthum
5:30 p.m. – Robert Testoni
Thursday, July 5
3 p.m. – Ryan Kirby
3:30 p.m. – Chris Cook
4 p.m. – Mark Brown
4:30 p.m. – Scott Zolotorow
5 p.m. – John Sears
5:30 p.m. – Ryan Kerr
Friday, July 6
2:30 p.m. Derek Andrews
3 p.m. – Trevin Jaggars
3:30 p.m. – Terrence Nelson
4 p.m. – Jeffrey Kryglik
4:30 p.m. – Hooters Girls will be in studio to announce and honor the semifinalists for the July 9th live show from Towson
